


Before the Fall

by chicken_neck



Category: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
Genre: Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Kid Fic, M/M, Possibly Pre-Slash, Pre-Canon, because this tugboat fandom doesnt seem to have a consensus on that, tagging all iterations of names, they're children you know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-26
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-04-08 10:20:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14103255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chicken_neck/pseuds/chicken_neck
Summary: If he jumped, Anthony would catch him. Possibly the only trustworthy fact in the universe.--The movie implies that Fridge and Spencer were best friends, once. This ficlet explores that dynamic, and what might have tore it apart.





	Before the Fall

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fanfiction I have published in ten years and I wrote it on a bus about a movie I had to see for work. Be kind.

“Spence, it's getting dark!”  
  
“No!”  
  
“Come on.”  
  
“No!”  
  
“You can't stay up there forever.”  
  
Spencer readjusted his grip on the rock face and considered his options, “I beg to differ.”  
  
If he'd looked down, he'd have seen Fridge, arms folded, losing patience, “it's like a three foot drop. You're being a baby.”  
  
Incendiary talk, among ten year olds, “I'm _not_ being a baby. If I was a baby, I'd have jumped. Babies don't worry about tetanus.”  
  
“Yeah, cause no one worries about tetanus!”  
  
Spencer was very worried about tetanus. He was halfway down the jagged slope of rock that was definitely not for climbing. He shouldn't have climbed it, why did he let Anthony - sorry, _Fridge_ , now - convince him to climb it. He shouldn't have come to the park. They should’ve stayed home, watched movies where it was safe and dry.  
  
His eyes danced with the dangers his mother told him to watch out for in parks - diseased needles, dog shit that can make you go blind, rabid animals, _tetanus._  
  
“Come on Spence, I jumped down and I was fine.”  
  
Spencer didn't bother to reply. Anth- _Fridge_ knew Spencer's answer to that one - a 5 point speech about how Anthony was three months older than Spence, had better spatial awareness than Spence, that he was better at logic under pressure, he didn't know as much about diseases, and that he did sports while Spencer did violin. Spencer couldn't do everything Anthony could.  
  
He heard a sigh from below, heard Anthony shuffle the leaf litter with the toe of his shoe. “Look,” said Anthony, finally, “if you just jump, I'll catch you.  
  
The tension melted out of Spencer's body like …like he was cheese and the jagged tetanus rocks were a plate of hot nachos. It was a little embarrassing what a difference it made. The jump seemed shorter. The rocks seemed less jagged. He could probably just slip down the rock right onto the ground like so much thin slime. If he jumped, Anthony would catch him. Possibly the only trustworthy fact in the universe.  
  
All the same- “you sure?” He called over his shoulder, where he was afraid to look.  
  
“I don't see any other way we'll get out of here,” said Anthony, grinning in the dimming light, “on the count of three?” and he counted to three.  
And Spencer let go.

 

Later, there was a later. There was Spencer's mother frantically disinfecting the scrapes on his hand, saying she didn't want Spencer playing with Anthony again. There was Fridge’s mother's mouth, a thin hard line a few months later, when she heard the Gilpins were getting a divorce. Two breaking points, two clean halves.  
  
But before later, there was now.  
  
It felt like the falling went on forever.


End file.
